1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a function control apparatus and a function control method for controlling functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, digital multifunction products including a combination of a plurality of functions such as a printer function, a copying machine function, and a facsimile function are spread. Because the digital multifunction products are used by users in a variety of occasions, it is desired to extend necessary functions according to user needs based on inexpensive apparatuses having only basic functions. For example, in a basic copying machine, capacities for storage of copy documents and rearrangement of pages are limited. However, it is possible to substantially increase the capacities through hard disk extension according to demands of users.
On the other hand, extended devices employing an interface standard such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) and a universal serial bus (USB) are widespread because functions can be easily added simply by connecting the extended devices to a bus and a switch device. As a technology for such extended devices, for example, the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-10912 is publicly known. An object of the technology is to provide a low-cost and highly scalable PCI adapter card that can make use of a large-scale integration (LSI) and a chip set incorporating PCI interfaces. In the technology, a host card having a first function block including a PCI-to-PCI bridge, a PCI bus, and a PCI bus interface and a module card having a second function block including a PCI bus and a PCI bus interface are connected to each other by a connector to form a multifunction adapter card. The multifunction adapter card and a PC motherboard having a first PCI bus are connected by a PCI edge connector and a PCI slot.
In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-10912, extension of functions of an apparatus is performed by a PCI extension card. However, functions before and after the extension are independent from one another. Therefore, direct cooperation of the functions before and after the extension is difficult. For example, it is difficult to perform image processing with the function before the extension and compress and encode an image, which is obtained by the image processing, with the extended function.